Stony Brook is a tributary of Fishing Creek in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. It is long and flows through North Centre Township and Orange Township. The stream's watershed has an area of 3.72 square miles. It flows through a steep ravine which is inhabited by numerous plant species for much of its length. The fossil-rich Stony Brook Beds also have an outcropping near the stream. In the 1870s, it was considered for use as a water supply by the Bloomsburg Water Company.

Course

Wetland near the headwaters of Stony Brook 5

Stony Brook starts in northwestern North Centre Township, on the southern edge of Knob Mountain. It begins flowing southwest and almost immediately crosses Pennsylvania Route 93. Shortly afterwards, it leaves North Centre Township, after which it enters Orange Township and continues southwest, where it enters a valley. The valley gets steeper as the stream turns south and then west, flowing north of Summer Hill. The stream crosses Pennsylvania Route 487 and shortly reaches its confluence with Fishing Creek. Stony Brook joins Fishing Creek upstream of its mouth and upstream of Lightstreet.

Geography, geology, and hydrology

Stony Brook flows through a steep and narrow valley for part of its length. The elevation of the stream is above sea level. The bed of Stony Brook consists of cobbles. An outcropping of the

rock formation A rock formation is an isolated, scenic, or spectacular surface rock outcrop. Rock formations are usually the result of weathering and erosion sculpting the existing rock. The term ''rock formation'' can also refer to specific sediment ...

known as the Stony Brook Beds is visible on the side of a road at the mouth of Stony Brook. This rock formation consists of

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

and has a high concentration of fossils, including two varieties of spirifier. The habitat around Stony Brook allows for a relatively high water quality; the stream's water is quite clear, but there is a risk the water quality could be impacted by runoff from nearby residential and agricultural lands.

Watershed and tributaries

The Columbia County Natural Heritage Inventory from 2004 designated the watershed of Stony Brook as a "locally significant site". It has an area of 3.72 square miles, and no tributaries. The stream is in the Bloomsburg USGS Topographical Quadrant. The valley of Stony Brook is forested and largely undeveloped. Although there is agricultural land upstream of the valley and on both sides of it and a housing development located on one side of the valley, there is no road going through the valley, and the Columbia County Natural Heritage Inventory strongly discourages the construction of one, stating that it would "be the most destructive action against this Exceptional Value Waters stream.".

History

In the 1870s, the

Bloomsburg Water Company Bloomsburg may refer to: Places * Bloomsburg, Ontario, Canada * Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, United States * Bloomsburg (Watkins House), a historic plantation estate in South Boston, Virginia, US Other * Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Bl ...

attempted unsuccessfully to use Stony Brook as a water supply. In 1938, a concrete tee beam bridge was built over Stony Brook. It is long and carries Pennsylvania Route 487. The average traffic over the bridge is 6310 vehicles per day, as of 2013. In 2009, 25 local volunteers cleaned up of 17.15 tons of debris that had been left at the confluence of Stony Brook with Fishing Creek during a flood in June 2006. Stony Brook is named for the fact that rocks are found in large numbers near it.

Biology

Wetland near the headwaters of Stony Brook 4

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has designated the entire length of Stony Brook as an Exceptional Value Stream, giving it some legal protection. The trees in the valley of Stony Brook are mostly hemlock of various ages. Other trees inhabiting the valley include

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

basswood ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

, two varieties of oak, yellow birch, black cherry,

pignut hickory ''Carya glabra'', the pignut hickory, is a common, but not abundant species of hickory in the oak-hickory forest association in the Eastern United States and Canada. Other common names are pignut, sweet pignut, coast pignut hickory, smoothbark ...

, tulip poplar, white ash, and sugar maple. There is also a substantial population of herbaceous plants in the bottom of the valley, particularly ferns: nine species have been recorded. Native

woodland flower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant probably is neither a Hybrid (biology), hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is in any way di ...

s inhabit the edges of Stony Brook. These include blue cohosh, false hellebore,

twisted stalk ''Streptopus'' is a Eurasian and North American genus of flowering plants in the lily family, found primarily in colder and temperate regions. Members of the genus are often referred to as twistedstalk. It is one of the shade-loving genera of t ...

miterwort ''Mitella'' is a genus of flowering plants known as miterworts or bishop's caps. ''Mitella'' species are native to temperate and arctic North America and Asia. Description ''Mitella'' includes perennial plant, perennials growing from a scaly rhi ...

, golden saxifrage,

barren strawberry Barren strawberry is a common name for several plants which may refer to: * ''Potentilla'', or in particular ''Potentilla sterilis'', native to Europe * ''Waldsteinia fragarioides ''Waldsteinia fragarioides'' ( syn. ''Dalibarda fragarioides'' ...

, false Solomon's seal, Solomon's seal,

Canada violet ''Viola canadensis'' is a flowering plant in the Violaceae family. It is commonly known as Canadian white violet, Canada violet, tall white violet, or white violet. It is widespread across much of Canada and the United States, from Alaska to Newf ...

, purple trillium,

wild stonecrop ''Sedum ternatum'' is the most widespread native '' Sedum'' species in eastern North America, commonly known as woodland stonecrop. It has white flowers, blooming April to May. This shade-tolerant species is often found in the forest understory ...

, trout lily,

dwarf ginseng ''Panax trifolius'', commonly called dwarf ginseng, is plant native to the Northeastern and Appalachian regions of North America. It is found in low mesic Mesic may refer to: * Mesic, North Carolina, a town in the United States * Mesic habitat ...

, and

white baneberry ''Actaea pachypoda'', the white baneberry or doll's-eyes, is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Actaea'', of the family Ranunculaceae. The plant is native to eastern North America, in eastern Canada, and the Midwestern and Eastern Unit ...

. An overhead power line crosses the valley of Stony Brook in one location. The area in its vicinity is inhabited by high numbers of invasive plants, such as multiflora rose. There are small numbers of the hemlock woolly adelgid, which is considered a

pest Pest or The Pest may refer to: Science and medicine * Pest (organism), an animal or plant deemed to be detrimental to humans or human concerns ** Weed, a plant considered undesirable * Infectious disease, an illness resulting from an infection ** ...

, in the watershed. In higher numbers, this insect could damage the watershed's hemlock forests.

References

External links

{{authority control Rivers of Columbia County, Pennsylvania Tributaries of Fishing Creek (North Branch Susquehanna River) Rivers of Pennsylvania